Two cars towed and 136 tickets issued on first night of snow disposal period

Drivers in La Crosse have a little more incentive to pay attention to where they park.

The city is starting to enforce new alternate side parking penalties. That includes triple fines and possibly towing cars.

The new penalties only go into effect when the city declares a snow disposal period.

Thursday night was the first time.

While some see it as an expensive inconvenience, they also do see the benefits.Streets in La Crosse were a little bit wider this morning.

Sue Crothers of La Crosse said that's a good thing.

“Especially in the cases of the storms we've had, I think it just makes sense to have people move their cars so they can get the snow cleared,” said Crothers. “It’s just kind of a no brainer.”

The city started cracking down on drivers not following the parking rules during the snow disposal period with triple fines or by towing cars.

That means what was normally a $10 ticket will cost you $30.

“It's really annoying,” said Dani Larsen of La Crosse. “I think that's a little extreme, but then again I'm not a fan of it to begin with.”

This was the first time ever the city declared a snow disposal period.Compliance from drivers was pretty good. It was much better than what it normally sees.

“Up until yesterday, compliance was really poor,” said Dale Hexom, director of Public Works in La Crosse. “I would say overall, better than 80 percent of the cars that had been there yesterday, were now moved to the correct side of the street. So that was in part reassuring. Crews were able to do a fairly decent job of plowing.”

Two cars were towed and 136 tickets were issued.

And while wider and clearer streets is a good incentive for Larsen, she thinks drivers could do without the extra pinch in their pockets.

“It wasn't last night, but I've had a friend that was towed, and especially, a lot of times it's college students that forget which side to park on and that can really be financially crappy for them,” said Larsen.

Of the 136 tickets that were issued nearly half of them were issued in the area around the UW-La Crosse Campus that is normally exempt from the alternate side parking ordinance.

The Snow Disposal Period is still in effect for Friday night.

Click here for more information on the city's alternate side parking rules.

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